Room Discounts No Deal If You Can’t Book

On any reasonable list of top strategies to save money traveling, you’re likely to see mention of half-off hotel membership programs. You pay $20 to $100 yearly for a year’s membership and a booklet that lists thousands of hotels. On nights that those hotels are expecting less than 80 percent or 85 percent occupancy, they give cardholders discounts of up to 50 percent from their published “off the rack” rates. In one night, a traveler can easily save as much money as the booklet cost.

But there’s a catch, and it’s growing larger by the day.

The hotel business is going gangbusters. Occupancy nationwide is at its highest rate since 1980 and demand is outracing supply. Especially in major U.S. cities, travelers are finding fewer and fewer nights available at those half-off discounts.

“I’m hearing from some hoteliers that they’re thinking of dropping out of these programs because they don’t need them anymore,” says Bruce Baltin, a senior vice president with the hotel consulting firm PKF Consulting. “It’s only good for anyone (consumers) as long as there’s reasonable access.”

At Entertainment Publications, the most prominent of the half-off hotel discount programs, spokesman Bob McHenry acknowledges that “flexibility is more important (for travelers) than it ever has been before. … But there still are empty rooms out there.”

Companies selling booklets include America at 50 Percent Off (800) 248-2783, Carte Royale (800) 847-7002, Encore (800) 638-0930, Great American Traveler (800) 331-8867, International Travel Card, also known as ITC-50, (800) 342-0558, Privilege Card International (800) 236-9732 and Quest International (800) 638-9819. But the best-known is Entertainment (800) 445-4137, which for more than 30 years has sold booklets aimed at varied geographic areas.

Since the company’s principal product is discounted hotel nights and all evidence suggests that there will be fewer of those in 1997 than in 1996, has Entertainment dropped the price of its nationwide booklet? No. Its National Hotel & Dining Directory, which includes about 3,500 hotels, remains priced at $37.95. (The company expects its biggest seller this year to be its Hotel & Travel Ultimate Savings Directory, which sells for $62.95 and includes about 5,500 hotels worldwide, along with cruise, rental-car and airline discounts.)

Meanwhile, demand and hotel rates keep growing. In 1995, PKF Consulting estimated an overall 72.5 percent occupancy rate among hotels in 60 major U.S. cities. In 1997, the firm is projecting a 73.7 percent rate, and authorities expect those high numbers to last out the decade. A hotel averaging 80 percent occupancy, says PKF Research Director Robert Mandelbaum, is likely to offer its 50 percent-off rate on fewer than 60 days a year.

At the Hotel Reservations Network, (800) 964-6835, President Bob Diener says his operators are taking more and more calls from “people who need a room, and they don’t care what the rate is.”